education? and that's basically my question. >> as you probably know, late last year the education minister got fired. remember? for china. which is a measure of what's going on. fortunately, much of the education system is also a decentralized and really in the hands of the provinces and the cities in many regards. but the problem is that given what you have said is the rote learning that we think is the most corrupting thing in that system. . .

and only speak when you're asked. this mindset, you have to start with the teacher. but that's very difficult to change the thinking of the teacher. and what they of course try to do is get people into china, who bring a different spirit. that cannot be done overnight. that -- >> one interesting new direct to and this is not responsive of what you have been saying, but

in every primary and secondary school, you have to take science and math. and these have been taught by anybody. but now the new direct it is for those teachers who teach science and math, do teachers have to have a degree in the subject everywhere before they can teach it. and i might even push harder for more rote learning and feedback, but it's part of really trying to be responsive to its engraved flux. we think this is good rather than being frozen in some position that they're going to keep. there are lots of issues, lots of push there. and you want to contribute to that, too. to that dialogue. >> into the thoughts of elite, you know, i am european and we

have noticed that the chinese government is trying to build an elite around the country, but not soviet style, but people who can really think of some capitalist feeling, to put it that way, and are part of the government. and they're moving into that part of the communist party. but i can tell you, if you're in the west and you compare the politicians and the thinking in the education of some western politicians of eastern europe, then you sometimes wish they had some of the width of the chinese politicians. but the european statement, so -- >> yes, hi. i'm a vice principal. thank you for being here today to give us this opportunity. i appreciate your comments upfront about being mindful of

the sources in the intent of the stories that we read in the media. and i certainly try to be mindful of that. but given not, are there one or two main, perhaps negative trends that you're seeing as china tries to figure all of this out, which you have some concerns for the nation about? >> i think the number one is the lack of confidence in what you're doing and the defensiveness they have about what they are doing and the lack of sophistication and talking about what they're doing. it's just amazing to me how the chinese leadership is around by stories in the western class. i mean, they really know about them and they really get upset about them and they really don't know what to do about it. every inapt imbuing with the rest of the world, though they're trying. so why do they want to join the world, be a part of the world,

but they're still pretty primitive and how you do that and how you respond to the interactions that you have with the rest of the world. and of course, the gap between urban and rural, which we all know about. i mean, they're working on that and it's going to take a long time. but it's still profoundly they are, that there is a great difference between the urban centers and out on the farm in the rural areas. in the migration to the cities has been the largest world if ever witnessed in knots the history of the development of the west, too. migration of the cities. but still, that gap is one of the biggest problems china has for sure. one thing that is not talked about is the aging. >> demographic. >> all the things we think about one child, and everybody getting a lot older.

the demographics are really going to be a problem down the line. >> hi, i know you stated a lot of reasons for the rise of china. i believe you listed eight pillars. were any of those pillars about china's lack of environmental regulations or any of those about china's poor building codes. were any of those about china's lack of basic workers rights, were any of those pillars on those topics? >> yes. yeah, there's a couple -- first of all, you should know we monitor -- we monitor papers, local reports in the local press is hard french of the international is the golden age for local reporting. we monitor everything that's going on locally in china.

and the two biggest issues, the two biggest issues for local papers all over china, both editorially and in the news coverage are corruption and the environment. they talk about those two things more than anything else. and i could add that to the list over there, corruption. but it's amazing what china is doing in those areas, although they are huge, huge problems. and also workers rights. they have a new workers rights program policy for migrant workers, including providing lawyers. but the bigger problems are corruption and the environment that you brought up. and in some areas, china is leading the world in the environment on clean energy with nuclear plants here were building 50 this year this

decade versus 54 the rest. in their view with other countries that that's the only clean energy we have. their call which provides most of the energy in china. they're building more -- they are post-rubber plants and they are building more than anyone else in the world are mostly, they're talking about it all the time. last year came out that she cannot in china have a project at any time of building a bridge, any kind of project about the sustainability of environmental sustainability program, sustainability program for the environment or you can't get approval for any projects. so they've got a long way to go, an awful long way to go in all the regard you speak of. but things are happening that are never reported in the west. >> and as you said, the law,

jude go system is reformed, but it's one thing to have the written law and it's another thing to have that law implemented in the provinces. and what happens in the united states that some boss is treating his people unfair, but the people feared to lose their jobs. you know, you were afraid to really complain and use the legal right you have because you know you might have a legal right, but on the other hand you might lose your job. that's in europe the case and much more in a country of that dimension. it is not easy to bring the level of the maturity level of the system or the law and slowly improving cubicle system from one day to the other to the whole country. because it needs to be executed.

and that's the difficult part. >> we have about 12 minutes left in what to get in as many student questions as possible. >> short questions and short answers. >> you -- you mentioned that the law system, the system and judicial systems in china are not established. can you elaborate on how it is not a completely -- how it's not a completely fair system like the united states? >> you know, if you as a worker have the right to sue your boss, and at the same time you know that once you see when we don't have a job and you don't know how that all works out. but, you have to, with history of the chinese, they're not really the people who stand up against abbas and yell and shout. we have an example in the book, you know, compare an american

worker or student who might be too tough versus the chinese who have to learn to oppose and fight for their rights. >> and criminal law, you know, china extraordinarily up until very recently, the lawyers -- one of the great growth in china is lawyers. i'm not sure that's good news or bad. but it's a huge growth industry because of all the new rules and judicial system. but up until just last year, lawyers couldn't type to the people they were defending and they couldn't deal with it before going into the courtroom. that was changed last year. whether that's been followed already, i don't know. but it changed that the lawyers become the lawyers for the people, work with the people who are being charged with a crime. that's a huge change for china. we'll see how it plays out. but that's in place now and

particularly in the provinces. you know, getting down to the provinces, you should suggest some time it could take a long times. the system is only 30%, as far as we can tell, mature. it's got a long way to go. >> he wants to ask a question. >> going back to the google question, there's been talk on the news about a possible government-sponsored chinese anchors that have been infiltrating not only private companies, private u.s. companies, but also highly secretive u.s. government does this as well. if this is true, should foreign nations and companies be weary of future interaction of business with china? >> the way you formulate the question, does that mean that china should be responsible for the misconduct of people who happen to be chinese? most of those, by the way, are operating out of taiwan now and

they are foreigners that go through taiwan and then to the mainland and so on. this is still all got to be worked out. this is right in midstream, all of this. in fact, it's sitting here in the media center i have to say that all of the media, all of the wonderful stuff we know about is in this long shakeout area. everything with the internet is all in this long shakeout period. we don't know what's going to happen for many years in our view. that is part of that process. >> all right. we talked about education in china. >> speak up please. >> we talked about the education system in china and if that improves and as a children have more of a freedom of thinking their own thoughts, would they come to challenge the democracy

that china has right now. and if so, would they improve the government or would they cost some kind of problem in china? >> what we experience is that there is a very strong patriotism in china and within the young generation. they love their country. they are proud of their country, but they are -- this is a generation with which is more critical because they compare china to the west. they partly glorify the west opposite than the west does when looking at china. i think it will work up the young generation with their different demand, the government will have to respond to. and there is a change because the government doesn't stay the same. the people in the government are sort of more and more of a different generation. and so, we believe that the

change is if the government continues that way, there can be a very smooth change. but the people, the demand of the young people of course is a totally different than the demand of their parents. >> yes, thank you for coming and taking my question. my question was, i'm interested to hear your opinion on 2008 leiby earthquake and how china responded to that and what that revealed about the failings and strength of vertical democracy. >> well, the 2008 earthquake, there are several ways about that. one, it was totally transparent. the earthquake that happened ten years before was hidden from view, the chinese didn't let any journalist then. they didn't write about the press and so forth.

this time around, they let journalist then. it was flooded with journalists. the stories were being reported and we got the story out, including using inferior materials to build school houses and all that. the reason we know about that is because the chinese opened it up this time. and that side of it was progress. the other side is a lot of the people have been pretty imprisoned in connection with this inferior building and so on. but so, there was good news and bad news. the good news was the transparency that the government was now willing to put forth in such a disaster. >> yeah, and it was really in no way uniting for the chinese. we experienced for many people who we know, who dropped whatever job they had and went there again and again to help

and sends money. so it was much more, let's work together, and help the people to fix it. and we were there a little after the earthquake in chengdu, which was likely not hit by us. but the spirit was moving together as a nation much more than what's happened there. >> thank you. my question is, is china's current pace of economic growth environmentally sustainable? and what should china do as a player in the global community to address the environmental problems facing? >> i thought we go with that. well, we answer that question earlier about the two biggest issues in china are corruption and the environment. and what they're doing in connection with energy and

environmental pollution and we were in beijing a lot in blue sky days. >> there are two things. on one hand, china doesn't want the west to tell the country what to do. environmental considerations and things. but on the other hand, they see a chance to become a forerunner in environmental questions. and they are hit by the environmental damage that is in china, much more than we are hit. so they're really working hard. >> okay. what the chinese really don't like is being lectured to about the environment and what they should do about the environment. they look to the west and say look, you screwed up your environment in the west. you have no moral grounds to lecture us about what we should do about our environment.

in the meantime, seems to us they're doing more about the environment than anybody. but the west keeps lecturing them in at the same time the west is still making its contribution to the environmental degradation of the entire planet. so what about the west? what are they doing? i mean, copenhagen they did nothing. it was a joke almost. was that serious? what about the west? >> okay. >> china becomes a stakeholder in lots of these things. >> and/or can't johnny, principal of tenafly principle. so one behalf of our school, i wanted to thank you doris and john for being with us and taking time. [applause]

>> we are here at this year's cpac top and stocking with marji ross president of publishing. can you tell us what is the latest in her series of politically incorrect guide? >> sure, this is a series that we launched about four years ago. and it was based on the idea that people have a sense in the conservative movement that they're not really getting the

facts, the information, the history on a lot of subjects, whether it's in school or from the mainstream media. and our goal was to buffer some myths and to try to tell the real story without worrying about political correctness. we started with the politically incorrect guide to american history, which was a big seller. and we now have 20 books in the series. the most recent one is just out called the politically incorrect guide to the vietnam war. it's particularly nice to have these books at cpac because there's so many students and so many young people. and this is a series of books that's really, in a lot of ways, position for a younger market, who again, feel that they don't really know the truth about what happened. ey hear about things like the vietnam war and they hear the vietnam war compared to the war on terror. and yet, they have the sense that they're not getting the real story. and so, this book is designed to

say, you didn't get the real story of the vietnam war and you're probably not coding the real story on the war on terror from the current administration because of their political agenda. >> last year you had the ultimate man survival guide. was that a big seller for you in this at the beginning of another series possibly? >> thank you for asking. we're actually talking about starting a series of ultimate man survival guides. it was a very successful but for us. it's a lot of fun and it's also the kind of book that covers a wide range of topics from a conservative family values, sort of rugged independent kind of point of view. and again, this is another book that has appealed greatly to a younger audience and a lot of people i know about the book and give it to their son when they graduated from college, when they just got married.

it's a very fun and interesting book and is something that we will do more of. >> who is your best selling authort prent? >> right now our hot book, if i can see it that way, is reporting disaster by mark tease. this this is a book he came out a few weeks ago and it's by former chief speech are greater in the bush white house. in the book makes a very strong argument that the cia interrogation program was the reason that there was not another attack against us after 9/11. but it was pretty remarkable. most people agree was pretty remarkable. there was never another attack, has not been one since then. he argues that it's because of the cia interrogation program and that when president obama came into office and dismantle that program, it was really a very dangerous and risky thing to do. he also has a very, very interesting argument about the

whole question of torture and whether or not the type x. really did qualify as torture. he makes a very strong arguments both on a practical sense in a moral sense that it wasn't torture. and that not only did we find out really valuable information, but that we are actually very, very careful about staying on the right line of this type takes. it's gotten a lot of talk. even my son and the talk shows when he heard dick cheney and joe biden debating, they were debating this very subject. and i think this book sparked a lot of that current debate. >> and what's coming up for 2010? >> what's coming up? you see newt gingrich here in our booth and we have a big new and rich but in april. we are very excited about that. we published his last three big nonfiction political books and they've all been bestsellers. his last big political book was

called real change and it came out during the presidential campaign. so he hasn't had a book since president obama has come into office and now is his chance to sort of give their report card on how the obama administration has done and what he feels we need to do to get the country back on track. >> and we see that and coulter is a pure. issue one of your authors as well? >> she is actually political commentator and writer for human events, which is a weekly conservative newspaper that our parent company publishes. they have been in business for over 60 years and ann holter is one of their best loved writers. she writes for human events, participate in the editorial board meetings every week and that is her editorial home. so we continue to publish her in the paper and also we have a weekly e. letter that we send out to about a million

subscribers for free. so we treat when she writes her car people can subscribe to that and get it in their mailbox every week. >> can you tell me about -- what's the relationship between regnery and eagle? >> because the multi-conservative publishing company that owns human events, regnery publishing, the conservative book club, red state come in a group of financial newsletters as well. and we all come together for the same mission of promoting conservative values and serving the conservative marketplace. that it's a nice combination of publishing businesses that cover a number of different media. cannot argue here every year? >> human events has been one of the cosponsors with acu of cpac for decades. so we've had a long presence here and it's a great show. i really like coming to the show to meet all the folks that we are writing books or in publishing these papers for. it's good.

>> thank you very much, marji. >> thank you very much. >> my name is jeff smith, the executive director of d.c. boys. how to tell those of you who are not either volunteers are affiliated with our work a little bit about what we do and why that really relates to the book that were here to hear about this evening. but there is this one brief story i'd like to always share, related a little bit to our work and related to a were about to hear. you know, we do community action resource. so d.c. voice organize community members and volunteers across the city to interview principles, interview teachers, collect data and bring that data

back to shot to policy makers about what they are teachers and principals are saying it's improved. one time when we were at a school over in northeast, i was walking to the back actually of a classroom and this young lady was drawing a beautiful little picture on her desk. and i said hey, what's that picture gore drawing? you could tell it was a picture or a person. this is a picture of god and drying. i said, you can try picture of god because no one knows what he is looking like. she said good, because they will in a minute. how many of you know a lot about community schools? show of hands. okay about three or four folks. so for the rest of you i say good, you will in a minute because that's one of the things we want to hear about. d.c. voice has been here in this community right here in columbia heights and adams morgan u. street area for the last ten years. where civil rights organization whose loans of a rights issue is

public education and the district of columbia. we primarily carry out our mission through community action research. we just celebrated our 10th anniversary in december on december 5 of last year. [applause] thank you. and we celebrated now the sixth year that we've done what i was talking about, that ready schools project for six years in a row we've gone into schools across the country and about willow supports the receiving and what they need to deliver high-quality instruction. for the last three years, we've gone into over 100 schools, each of those years. and the 2008 in 2009 school year, we started our town hall meeting theories. the last school year we had five town hall meetings throughout the city, identical meetings on fridays and saturdays to let people of different backgrounds, different geographical locations could make them. and from